referencebooks

Handbook of Sexuality-Related Measures, 2nd Edition

Edited by Clive M. Davis, William L. Yarber, Robert Bauserman, George Schreer, and Sandra L. Davis

Published by SAGE, 1998

This is an 8.5" by 11" hardbound book running to 589 pages including the index, plus a brief preferatory section.

This book is a compilation of about 200 questionnaires, scales, invetories, interview schedules and other instruments for measuring sexuality-related traits, attitudes, behaviors, and variations. All of the instruments included have been tested for validity and reliability by extensive use in research.

Here are the titles of a sampling of the measures included:

• The Sex Anxiety Inventory
  
• Hurlbert Index of Sexual Assertiveness
  
• Permissiveness of a Nurse's Sexual Attitudes (Brief)
  
• Sexual Irrationality Questionnaire (Brief)
  
• Condom Embarrassment Scale
  
• Styles of Conflict Inventory for Personal Relationships
  
• Sexuality After Spinal Cord Injury Questionnaire
  
• Indicators of a Double Standard and Generational Differences in Sexual Attitudes
  
• The Hyperfemininity Scale
  
• Herpes Knowledge Scale
  
• Power Sharing in Lesbian Partnerships
  
• The Anticipated Sexual Jealousy Scale
  
• The Sexual Self-Disclosure Scale
  
• Token Resistence to Sex Scale
  

Opening the book at random, I'll looking at the entry for The Derogatis Sexual Functioning Inventory (DSFI). This two-page entry does not have the instrument itself but simply describes it. The description is very detailed and provides plenty of information for a researcher to decide whether this is the appropriate instrument for his or her study, and gives contact information for the research organization that it can be ordered from. The entry finishes with a list of references to studies where the inventory was used. This entry is a typical one.

This is a very useful book for someone doing research in sexuality and sexual functioning, whether sociological or psychological. It's also interesting reading for someone who's interesting in getting a peek at the way social scientists view sexuality.

The Enyclopedia of Aging, Third Edition

George L. Maddox, Editor-in-Chief

Published by Springer, 2001

This is a two-volume work measuring 7" by 10" and running to a total of 1235 pages, plus some preferatory material, a subject index, and a contributors' index.

The intention of this book is to be the standard reference work for gerontology and geriatrics. Though I haven't compared it to competing works, it seems thorough and complete enough to succeed in that aspiration. Entries are longish, sometimes running to several pages. Some background in medical science and a little background in psychology and social work topics is assumed.

Here is a list of the first fifteen entries in the "P" sequence:

• Pain
  
• Palliative Care
  
• Paranoia
  
• Parathyroid Hormone, Calcitonin, and 1,25 Dihydroxyvitamin D
  
• Parenting
  
• Parkinson's Disease
  
• Pensions
  
• Pepper Centers
  
• Perception
  
• Personal Care/Personal Assistant/Personal Attendant Services
  
• Personality
  
• Person Perception
  
• Pets
  
• Pharmacodynamics
  
• Physical Restraint
  

This is a very useful book, especially for an academic audience.

Encyclopedia of School Psychology

Steven W. Lee, Editor

Published by SAGE, 2005

This is an 8.5" by 11" hardbound book running to 656 pages including a lengthy index, plus 29 pages of preferatory material.

The book is what the title says it is: an encyclopedia of school psychology. As such it includes entries on psychological disorders of childhood (especially as they concern the educational process), child development topics, educational psychology, institutions, and educational policy issues. For a sense of what's included, here is the full list of entries in the "M" sequence:

• Mainstreaming
  
• Manifestation Determination
  
• Mastery Learning
  
• Mathematics Curriculum and Instruction
  
• Mathematics Intervention and Strategies
  
• Media and Children
  
• Memory
  
• Mental Age
  
• Mental Retardation
  
• Mentoring
  
• Middle School
  
• Montessori Schools
  
• Motivation
  
• Motor Assessment
  
• Multicultural Education
  
• Multidisciplinary Teams
  

The book is laid out in fairly large type, two colums per page. Articles are long-ish, and while they're pretty easy to read, they do assume a certain degree of background knowledge of psychology. However, it's not so much that non-psychologists will struggle heavily to understand it.

This is a decent book that fills a definite need.

The Autism Encyclopedia

By John T. Neisworth and Pamela S. Wolfe

Published by Paul S. Brookes Publishing Co., 2005.

This is a nicely-manufactured, hardbound book measuring 6" by 9" and running to 306 pages including a bibliography and appendices, plus notes on the editors and contributors, a preface, acknowledgements, and a "how to use this book" section.

The entries in this book, which are closer to dictionary-length than encyclopedia length, cover over 500 specialized terms relating to the study and treatment of autism and other "pervasive developmental disorders" (PDD's).

For an idea of what's included, here is are the first fifteen terms defined in the "E" sequence, not including "see" references:

• early intervention
  
• early signs
  
• echolalia
  
• ecological approach
  
• ecological inventory
  
• ecology of human performance
  
• Education of the Handicapped Act (EHA) of 1970 (PL 91-230)
  
• electroencephalogram (EEG)
  
• eligibility
  
• embedded skills
  
• emotional support
  
• empiricism
  
• encopresis
  
• engagement
  
• entrepreneurial model
  

The entries are written clearly and informatively. While they don't assume too much background knowledge, they do assume a good level of literacy.

I'm not very knowledgeable about the study and treatment of autism, but my impression of the book is that behaviorist methods are noticeably prominent. Also, it's interesting to note that the editors made the decision not to confine the book to the study of autism but to include other developmental disorders as well, although the focus is on autism and treatment of other disorders is very incomplete. The preface doesn't explain the reason for this decision, but it may have to do with similarity in symptoms, treatment or etiology.

Anyway, this is a useful book on a subject of growing importance.

A Dictionary of Alchemical Imagery

By Lyndy Abraham

Published by Cambridge University Press, 1998.

This is a thin, 7" by 10" clothbound book. It runs to 249 pages including the bibliography and index of alchemical and literary authors, plus a list of figures, abbreviations, and a substantial introduction. The type is fairly small, and the margins (left margins on both left and right pages) are large and hold the entry titles.

The book is what its title says it is - a dictionary of alchemical imagery. However, a little more needs to be known about it to make use of it. Unlike many subject-oriented dictionaries, this one does not serve as an accessible introduction to the field. The entries, which can be for either terms from alchemy (processes, concepts) or names of objects used, are written for an audience that is already familiar with alchemical literature. For example, here is the the entry for sol niger:

sol niger (the black sun), symbol of the death and putrefaction of the metal, or of united *sulfur and *argent vive at the *nigredo, the initial stage of the opus alchymicum (see chemical wedding) (see fig. 38). At the nigredo the metal or matter for the Stone is 'killed' and dissolved into its *prima materia so that it may be resurrected in a new form. At the death of the matter, darkness reigns. The light of the sun (gold) is said to be put out, totally eclipsed (see eclipse). Artephius wrote: 'But first this Sol by putrefaction and resolution in this water, loseth all its light or brightneess and will grow dark and black' (SB, 4).

Asterisks in the above entry indicate terms discussed elsewhere in the book.

Contemporary interest in alchemy tends to be literary, psychological and spiritual; no one today believes in it the way the alchemists did, but find humanistic significance in what they were up to. Carl Jung's approach to it in his Mysterium Conjunctionis is instructive (though that book is not listed in the bibliography of this dictionary). So this book, which is classified in the PN's in our collection, could be of use to students of literature, history, religion, psychology, or, because of the focus on imagery, art. It's an interesting book but one that would have to be used by someone with background knowledge or in conjunction with a more introductory text.

A Historical Dictionary of Psychiatry

By Edward Shorter

Published by Oxford University Press, 2005.

This is a black, clothbound book measuring 6" by 9" and running to 338 pages including a bibliographic essay, a bibliography, and the index, plus a brief preface.

The preface makes the claim that the book is the "first-ever historical dictionary of psychiatry," and places the work in the context of the discipline's transition from a psychoanalytic paradigm to a neurobiological and psychopharmacological one.

For each concept in present-day psychiatry (and some outmoded concepts as well) entries trace their evolution since the time of Freud, providing clearly-written explanations of the theories involved as they were introduced and later left behind. Obsolete terminology is defined in the process, and facts about theoreticians and standard therapeutic practices are provided as well. Besides entries on concepts, there are also entries on people, institutions, and therapies. The emphasis is less on telling the story of psychiatry than on explaining the origins of the elements of present-day practice.

For an idea of what is covered, here are is the full list of entries in the "A" sequence, including see reference:

• Affective Disorders. See Depression: Emergence; Depression: Recent Concepts; Hypomania; Manic-Depressive Illness.
  
• Agoraphobia. See Anxiety and Phobias (1870 and after).
  
• Akathisia, or inability to remain in a sitting posture.
  
• Alcoholism (See also Substance Abuse).
  
• Alzheimer, Alois (1864-1915).
  
• Alzheimer's Disease. See Dementia: Alzheimer's presenile dementia (1906, 1910)
  
• Amphetamines. SeeNarcolepsy; Antidepressant: First-generation anti-depressants: the amphetamines.
  
• Andreasen, Nancy Coover (1938-).
  
• Anhedonia.
  
• "Anna O."
  
• Anorexia Nervosa. See Body Image, Disturbances Of.
  
• Antidepressant.
  
• Antipsychiatry Movement.
  
• Antipsychotics.
  
• Anxiety and Phobias.
  
• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
  
• Autism
  

This is a fascinating and useful reference book.

The Psychology of Music, second edition

Edited by Diana Deutsch.

Published by Academic Press in their Series in Cognition and Perception, 1999.

This is a 6" by 9" paperback running to 807 pages including the index, plus a list of contributors and a preface.

This is a borderline reference book, because it's organized as a treatise covering current knowledge about the psychology of music in 18 topical chapters, each written by a different scholar and divided into subsections. The chapters are:

• The Nature of Musical Sound
  
• Concert Halls: From Magic to Number Theory
  
• Music and the Auditory System
  
• The Perception of Musical Tones
  
• Exploration of Timbre by Analysis and Synthesis
  
• The Perception of Singing
  
• Intervals, Scales, and Tuning
  
• Absolute Pitch
  
• Grouping Mechanisms in Music
  
• The Processing of Pitch Combinations
  
• Neural Nets, Temporal Composites, and Tonality
  
• Hierarchical Expectation and Musical Style
  
• Rhythm and Timing in Music
  
• The Performance of Music
  
• The Development of Music Perception and Cognition
  
• Musical Ability
  
• Neuroligical Aspects of Music Perception and Performance
  
• Comparitive Music Perception and Cognition
  

Each chapter ends with a generous bibliography.

The writing in this book can be quite technical, requiring some background in both music theory and psychology or even neuro-psychology, which can make it a bit difficult for most of us to use. That said, it contains an impressive store of knowledge on a subject that many naively assume is simply a perennial mystery.

A weakness of the book is that it is primarily oriented in the Western classical music tradition, even where it discusses relatively contemporary music. This can make it seem irrelevant to many people's interest in the psychology of music even if the findings it communicates are truly generalizeable (which they may or may not be).

In any event, it is a very interesting and rich book, useful for anyone seriously interested in the psychology of music and how music "works."

The Encyclopedia of Phobias, Fears, and Anxieties, 2nd edition

By Ronald M. Doctor and Ada P. Kahn.

Published by Facts on File, 2000.

This is a hardbound book measuring 7.5" by 9.5" and running to 568 pages including the resource list, bibliography and index, plus a foreword, preface, and acknowledgments.

The book, which some would argue is more of a dictionary than an encyclopedia, has around 2,000 entries having to do with phobias and anxieties, including objects of fear (whether things, situations, feelings, and areas of life), terms relating to therapies, and important scholars in the field.

Here is a list of the first fifteen entries in the "W" sequence:

• waits, fear of long
  
• waking up, fear of not
  
• walking, fear of
  
• Walloonphobia
  
• war, fear of
  
• washing, fear of
  
• wasps, fear of
  
• water, fear of
  
• Watson John B.
  
• waves, fear of
  
• weakness, fear of
  
• weekend depression
  
• weight gain, fear of
  
• weight loss, fear of
  
• Weil, Andrew
  

That list is heavy on the "fears of," where elsewhere in the book there are often more entries about therapies and "-phobia" words.

Phobias and anxieties are a serious matter and a real problem for the people who suffer them, but I have to admit that this book made me crack up laughing when I was reading it here at the reference desk, and I have difficulty explaining why. Some of these documented fears of trivial things just seem comical when treated as unique medical syndromes.

The majority of entries in the book briefly define specific fears, and usually don't provide much knowledge about those fears beyond that definition. There are some longer entries, but those are the minority. But this is definitely a substantial book considering the ground it covers and the sheer number of fears that it catalogues. I am not sure what kind of research it would be particularly helpful with, however.

The International Handbook on Innovation

Edited by Larisa V. Shavinina.

Published by Elsevier Science on their Pergamon imprint, 2003.

This is a very heavy 7" by 10" hardbound book, running to 1171 pages of slick paper including the author and subject indexes, plus a long table of contents section, acknowledgments, contributors' bios, and a preface.

This book covers recent research on innovation, mainly from an industrial psychology perspective, but drawing on many disciplines. The introduction says,

"The purpose of the handbook is multifold: (a) to pose critical questions and issues that need to be addressed by research in a given subfield of innovation; (b) to review and evaluate recent contributions in the field; (c) to present new approaches to understanding innovation; and (d) to indicate lines of inquiry that have been, and are, likely to continue to be valuable to pursue. This handbook does not provide the kind of literature reviews usually found in textbooks. The conventional understanding of a handbook -- as a compendium of review chapters suggesting a guide to practice -- seems to be very restricted in the context of the field of innovation. The 'handbook' title suggests a guide to practice only in cases where the body of knowledge is understood to be complete and more or less unchanging. For example, 'Handbook of Mathematical Formulae', or 'Handbook of Motorcycle Repair'. However, the study of innovation is a body of knowledge under dynamic theoretical development, and so I prefer to use the 'International Handbook on Innovation' instead of the 'International Handbook of Innovation'. I hope readers will find the present chapters lively and provocative, stimulating greater interest in the science of innovation."

The book is classified in the BF's in our library, based on the judgment, following LC's subject tracings, that it is mostly about the personal qualities underlying innovativeness. While it is about that, it is really more about innovation as something that can be pursued by companies, research organizations and educational or cultural institutions in a deliberate, managed way, and therefore might be more appropriately classified in some other way. It is, I grant, not easy to classify well.

The book is divided into fifteen parts, each with a number of chapters. The fifteen parts are:

1. INTRODUCTION
   
2. THE NATURE OF INNOVATION
   
3. INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN INNOVATIVE ABILITY
   
4. DEVELOPMENT OF INNOVATION ACROSS THE LIFE SPAN
   
5. ASSESSMENT OF INNOVATION
   
6. DEVELOPMENT OF INNOVATION
   
7. INNOVATIONS IN DIFFERENT DOMAINS
   
8. BASIC APPROACHES TO THE UNDERSTANDING OF INNOVATION IN SOCIAL CONTEXT
   
9. INNOVATIONS IN SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS
   
10. INNOVATION IN MANAGEMENT
    
11. INNOVATION LEADERSHIP
    
12. INNOVATION AND MARKETING
    
13. INNOVATION AROUND THE WORLD: EXAMPLES OF COUNTRY EFFORTS, POLICIES, PRACTICES AND ISSUES
    
14. INNOVATIONS OF THE FUTURE
    
15. CONCLUSION
    

This review is getting a little long, but I really want to share the chapter titles under "Innovations in Different Domains" for a sense of the scope of the book:

1. Dimensions of Scientific Innovation
   
2. Do Radical Discoveries Require Ontological Shifts?
   
3. Understanding Scientific Innovation: The Case of Nobel Laureates
   
4. Innovation in the Social Sciences: Herbert A. Simon and the Birth of a Research Tradition
   
5. Poetic Innovation
   
6. Directions for Innovation in Music Education: Integrating Conceptions of Musical Giftedness into General Educational Practice and Enhancing Innovation on the Part of Musically Gifted Students
   
7. Determinants of Technological Innovation: Current Research Trends and Future Prospects
   
8. Innovation in Financial Services Infrastructure
   
9. Innovation in Integrated Electronics and Related Technologies: Experiences with Industrial-Sponsored Large-Scale Multidisciplinary Programs and Single Investigator Programs in a Research University
   

Before seeing this book I had never considered that the phenomenon of innovation itself could be studied as a science. The book makes up an impressive collection of evidence that a real beginning has been made to a science of innovation. Precisely because innovation involves creativity at its core and anything that can be put in terms of static scientific principles or laws seems to be, well, something other than creativity, the idea of a science of innovation seems counter-intuitive. But browsing through the book shows that there is much that we can learn about innovation, how it comes about, and how to foster it.

This is a useful book for people who see themselves as innovators or want to study how to foster innovation in their own organizations.

Encyclopedia of Human Emotions

Edited by David Levinson, James J. Ponzetti, Jr., and Peter F. Jorgensen

Published by Macmillan Reference USA, 1999.

This is a two-volume hardbound set measuring 9" by 11" and totaling 768 pages including the bibliography index and subject index, plus 18 pages of preferatory material.

This Encyclopedia brings together information from psychology, psychiatry, biology, sociology, anthropology, communication studies and other fields to summarize what we know about "the nature, causes, expression, and societal role of emotions - today, in the past, and across cultures."

There are 156 articles in the set, each signed by an expert whose institutional home is listed. The "S" sequence contains articles with the following titles:

• Sadness
  
• Sartre, Jean-Paul
  
• Satisfaction
  
• Seasonal Affective Disorder
  
• Self-Esteem
  
• Sensation Seeking and Risk Taking
  
• Shame
  
• Shyness
  
• Sin
  
• Smiling
  
• Sociology of Emotions
  
• Spinoza, Baruch
  
• Sports
  
• Stress
  
• Sullivan, Harry Stack
  
• Surprise
  
• Sympathy
  

The article on satisfaction is almost seven pages in length. It begins with a paragraph defining the emotion, and then has sections with the headings, "Satisfaction as a Concept;" "Satisfaction Compared to Related Concepts" (with subheadings "Pleasure," "Happiness," and "Joy,"); "Cross-Cultural Research on Satisfaction;" and "Conculsion." It finishes with see-also references to "Achievement Motivation," "Happiness," "Hope," "Motivation," and "Pleasure," followed by a bibliography of 44 items for further reading.

The textual discussion is non-technical and very informative. Most people's knowledge of emotions is intuitive, and it is almost surprising to see how much study has gone into human emotions in different disciplines and what the contours of our knowlege of emotion are.

Articles on related emotions, such as Envy and Jealousy, Shame and Guilt, Anxiety and Fear, and Sympathy and Empathy, are all written by different experts, which allows you to get different versions of the distinctions between them.

This is a very interesting encyclopedia, useful in many types of research. The odd thing about its subject matter is the unlikelihood of someone turning to it whose research might be helped by it, because of its focus on subjective experience rather than the outward realities that are usually in focus. People doing work in theatre, film, literature, art, persuasion, psychology and some other social science disciplines seem most likely (to me) to find a good use for this encyclopedia.